LE Mans winners John Neilsen and Oscar Larrauri will head an array of top Grand Touring car drivers in China's first international motor race meeting to be held in Zhuhai from November 11-13. Most of the world's leading drivers in the GT series have signed up for the 75-lap endurance race over a 4.1-kilometre street circuit, the feature event in the FIA-sanctioned meeting. There are also separate races for mainland drivers and their Hong Kong and Macau counterparts. ''A host of internationally known drivers will be in the race, a Le Mans-style endurance race with each car to be driven by at least two persons,'' said race director Andrew Maher, a New Zealander assigned to putting the event together. ''We will be seeing the spectacular Venturi, Ferrari, Lotus and Porsche Grand Touring cars. It promises to be one of the most exciting races ever staged in the region with pit stops and refuelling allowed.'' Besides Neilsen and Larrauri, other star drivers heading for Zhuhai include ex-Formula One competitor Olivier Grouillard, leading French GT driver Michel Ferte and Anders Olofsson, a three-times Japan touring car champion. Maher explained that the GT drivers on the European circuit formed their own group headed by former driver Jurgen Barth and they signed up for the Zhuhai race when Barth introduced the event to them. Zhuhai held its first motor race meeting last year, but it was limited to drivers from Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland only. Motorcycling was on the programme at the inaugural meeting but it has been scrapped for this one. Yu Bingling, chairman of the race organising committee, said: ''A Formula One track, the Zhuhai International Circuit, is being built so we will bring back motorcycling when it is completed in two years time.''
